Anderson Varejao Doesn’t Want to Play in Cleveland Anymore
By Tariq Ali on Nov 27, 2007 in Anderson Varejao, Cavaliers News
In a rare phone interview with ESPN, Anderson Varejao expressed his frustration with the Cavaliers and Danny Ferry. “I just want to be treated fairly and I don’t think Danny’s done that.” he told ESPN.
“I wanted to come back,” he said. “I love the fans and I really love my teammates. But there are others there that have made it very difficult. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t want to play there anymore. I’m just hoping for a sign-and-trade at this point.”
But Ferry is not ready to make the same mistake the Cavaliers made when they signed, yes you guessed it, Danny Ferry himself.
Ferry refused to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers and decided instead to play in Europe and eventually forced the Clippers to trade him to Cleveland.
Anderson turned down the Cavs’ one-year, $1.2 million offer. He also refused Cleveland’s opening offer of five years, $20 million, and then its latest offer of five years, $32 million, with a starting salary slightly below the midlevel exception.
Ferry says the Cavs’ offer is fair.
“We believe the Cavs’ offers are very much in line with what is widely perceived throughout the industry as fair market value. We have also included bonuses that would serve as upside protection for Anderson,” Ferry said.”We are working to make decisions that are best for short- and long-term interests of the organization, yet clearly stepping up and offering him long-term security at a very fair market value.”Varejao is talking down on some of the players on the team, “I’m willing to go and play in Europe if that’s what it takes,” Varejao said. “I know it’s a risk and I’ll be a restricted free agent next year, but at least I’d be happy. I don’t think I’ll be happy in Cleveland knowing that I was almost the lowest-paid player there for three years and am still paid much less than players on the team that I outperform. Life’s too short to be unhappy.”
Varejao averaged 6.8 points and 6.7 rebounds last season.
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3 Comment(s)
By Brian on Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
I went in and read that article… help me on this if he didn’t ask for 10-11 mil then how is settling for a 5 yr 45 mil w/sign and trade not implying that he was asking for it?
By Tariq Ali on Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
It is known in the NBA that Fegan asked for six years and more than $60 million a few days before training camp. GMs all over the league have been talking about that figure so it is no secret that he asked for more than 10 mil a year. Now if he’s asking for $45 mil for 5 years then good luck in getting that money. If someone want to pay that much for a role player then more power to them.
By Kyle Borza on Dec 11, 2007 | Reply
Varejao needs to realize that he is not the star player he thinks he is. He very well could be, but you don’t pay players for their potential. You pay them for their current level of performance, unless you’re Lebron James of course. Making comments like those about his own teammates is an amateur move and not one deserving of star player money.